Tuesday, July 2, 2013

American Friends Service Committee was proud to provide our space this week for the Solutions Not Punishments Coalition's community meeting. A member of the Group, Misty Novich, put together this write-up which we are happy to publish.

This progressive proposal and community meeting came after
SNaPCo and a wide range of diverse groups came together to stop the medieval
“banishment ordinance” in February of this year. The Atlanta City Council and
Mayor Kasim Reed attempted to pass this inhumane, ineffective ordinance without
any input from those most directly affected, or from those most connected to
those affected. This ordinance would have further punished alleged street-level
sex workers by banishing them from certain areas or the whole city, even if they
live in that area where they work.

Street-level sex workers already face a disproportionate
amount of violence, abuse, and other struggles. Street-level sex workers have
mortality rates 200 times those of other women of similar age and race. They
are 18 times more likely to be murdered than their counterparts and have a
workplace homicide rate 51 times higher than the second most dangerous
profession, liquor store clerks. About 75% meet criteria for Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD), 46% have attempted suicide, and one in five has had a
police officer demand sex acts from them in exchange for not being arrested.
When jurisdictions increase arrests and punishments for sex workers, their risk
of harm increases significantly, and they are less inclined to report abuse.

The Atlanta City Council knows that arresting, fining,
banishing, or otherwise further punishing street-level sex workers will not
reduce prostitution – it will, in fact, increase
prostitution. Instead, they are likely responding to the demands of the
vigilante group Midtown Ponce Security Alliance (MPSA), some members of which
are ex-cops. This group has been known to go around shining flashlights in the
faces of trans and gender non-conforming people around Midtown, take pictures
of them and post those pictures online or different businesses, like gas
stations, calling them “trans gangs.” Trans and gender non-conforming folks
report similar harassment by police, whether they are engaging in survival sex
work at the time or simply being who they are, as well as hiring discrimination
generally, which is one reason given for doing sex work in the first place – to
generate income, or in exchange for shelter and to meet other basic needs.

After defeating the banishment ordinance, Mayor Reed was
forced to start a Working Group on Prostitution (WGOP), which has met monthly
three times and will meet again on July 12th, 2013 at 9-11am at
Atlanta City Hall, 55 Trinity Ave. This WGOP is supposedly meant to come up
with a good alternative to banishing people to deal with street-level
prostitution, but so far community members are unsatisfied with the progress, the
emphasis on law enforcement, and the lack of community input (as these meetings
are usually on Friday mornings, when many people are at work). SNaPCo and
allies decided not to wait for the WGOP to come up with a good alternative
proposal, as a significant number of people on the WGOP supported banishment
originally.

Given that most street-level sex workers engage in sex work
as a means of generating income and surviving, SNaPCo and others wish to offer
an alternative proposal that addresses the needs and motivations of sex workers
instead of trying to push them away or lock them up. SNaPCo came up with the
draft proposal, “Pre-Booking Diversion Program for Street-Level Sex Offenses.”
This proposal calls for connecting alleged sex workers, if they choose,
directly with case managers for individualized services and treatment instead
of arresting or booking them at all.

Next steps for the city in the proposal include halting the
ineffective arrest sweeps of street-level sex workers, accepting Ford
Foundation money for travel to visit Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted
Diversion (LEAD) program to learn from them, and officially networking and mobilizing
service providers and case managers to begin formalizing an infrastructure for
a solutions-based policy. This proposal’s implementation would likely cost much
less, have much greater impact on reducing prostitution, and help some of the
most marginalized people in society access what they need to improve their
lives.

At the Coalition and Community Meeting, representatives from
many different groups, organizations, and perspectives met to discuss the
proposal - what we agree on and what we would add, clarify, or change. All
ideas and feedback were recorded and we moved closer to a great ordinance that
the whole community would support. SNaPCo and our allies will continue to work
together to ensure that our decision-makers make the right choices on what
policies around street-level sex work will replace the current outdated,
ineffective ones.